The Sun. — London, England, 1838-04-21 00:00:00

exercise without the consent and approval of the Colonial As rnbly. The Rev. Gentleman then referred to despatches I'era Sir Lionel Smith, the Governor of Jamaica, for the purpose of sh ow i ng , upon hi s aut h or i ty , t h a t " t h e s l ave l aw i • Jamaica was the worst of all those acted upon in the slave colonies." After enum era ti n g various clauses, in which the evils of the s y s t em were very i mper f ect l y prov id e d aga i ns t, the Rev. Gentleman appealed to the meeting, and asked them n, under such circumstances, the Governor of the colony could exercise an honest or proper discretion in the majority of the cases whi c h were to b e submitted to him.—( Cheers. ) Tcl auses Rey. Gentlem an h ere p rocee ded to analyse the various uses contain e d i n t h e new A c t, p o i n ti ng o u t their gross In justice to the negro , an d t h e w id e l at it u d e it gav e to their heartless task -masters to oppress and goad them on to acts of retaliation or violence. The penalties to which the planters were liable under the old law, and which was the only check the slave possessed when he appealed to justice against his T a ster, were not continued in the new Act, an Act which it was supposed would at least be as favourable to the negro as =he old s l ave code. For i nstance, un d er t h e system of slavery they were liable to a penalty of 201. for not providing provision grounds; this peealty was reduced to 51. under the Aboliti on Bi ll. Again, under the old law a pena l ty o f 1001. Was to be imposed on the planter for any act of cruelty to his think or twelve m on th s ' imprisonment; but what did they e of the spirit i n w hi c h th e new Act was conceived, when the found this penalty reduced to 51., and the imprisonment for twelve mo n th s re d uce d t o five days ? These, observed the Reverend Gentleman, were the protecting provisions of the Bill which he held in his hand ; and which instead of securing to the negro those immunities and privi— leges which had been so dearly purchased, left him more com pletely than ever at the mercy of his master. On all these ground s as respected the personal freedom ofthe apprentices - -as respected the cruelty to which they were subjected—as respected their d:stribution into classes, in order effectually to se cure that lib er t y w hi c h th e Act professed to give ; he held ther e f ore on th ose severa l matters ti le Act was inefficient, and o r t ,efore that it must be unsatisfactory to the friend 11l the negro and every friend of common justice. It . was consequence of these inefficiencies that they now came for ward and pre themd urther measures, and they should conti the to press for until they secured to the negro the c harter of hi s f ree d om . H e w as glad to perceive at the con clusion of the Act which has just passed the legislature, a clause which provided that that Act could be repealed or amended b y any other A ct w hi c h m i g h t b e passe d i n th e pre sent session o f P ar li ament , an d i t was un d er the permission thusg i ven by their legislators that they now came forward, convinced of its inefficiency, and at heart sickened of those half n eats:res to mitigate slavery, as they would be to gild over th e e 'lces of th e pr o fligate and the debatichee.--(Cheers. ) were met c h at d ay t o se ek the repeal of this Act, and thus They leave the high road of emancipation open to the negroes and their friends.—( Hear, hear, hear.) He felt th a t hnis ffifeeble ad vocacy of t h e cause o f the negro was miserably lce ear le. ; but still, if h e had succeeded in placing in a • light the r ea l position of the apprentices , and the in justice of the provisions of the Act to which he had referred, he trusted with one accord they would express their convic tion that those previsions would never have the ir sanction— that w hil e they had sought the full, the immediate , a nd un conditional emancipation of the negro, they would n ot acce p t hmiserable instalment, which seemed more likely to deceive than to satisfy the expectations of its most sanguine f riends. When they looked around at the thousands of their fellow shltjects w h o were held in bondage—a h ope l ess b on d a ge—for which so magnificent a ransom had been paid, was it too much of the negro to ask the British people to rise to their rescue ? i Their li ne o f duty was plainly marked out b e f ore t h em —th e y had but one course to take, and that course was the course of .truth, of h uman i ty, and of honesty— i t was a course di c t a ted by justice, a course that was hallowed by religion, and a course that he would fain hope ere long would be crowned with an abundant blessing from their young and gracious Monarch. Th e rev . g ent l eman conc luded a lengthened and quent address, of which the above is but a mere outline, by submitting the resolution. WILLIAM THOMAS BLAIR, Esq , late Mayor of Bath, then came forward, and was loudly cheered. He said he feared very much that severe indisposition, and a distressing weak ness of voice, would prevent his entering into the subject at such length as h e would wish. However, ho was relieved in a great measure by the very unexpected arrival of a gentleman whose thorough acquaintance with all the facts and details of the case qualified him for addressing the present meeting with Much mere ability and efficiency than himself—he alluded to his respected friend, Mr. Scobell.—(Loud cheering.) He would therefore werely trouble them with a few observations in support of the great cause in which they were embarked, and in discussing it he found it useful occasionally to go back to first principles—to consider the ground on which they stood, that they might be prepared in the face of all opposition fear lessly to maintain the cause of truth and justice.—( Cheers. ) For that purpose he would advert to what he deemed the , fun damental principles of the question—and it constituted tne on ly ground upon which the Abolitionists could take their firm stand— ie WLS this, that slavery, under every form and modification, in every age and country, either in Sparta or in Rome, in the British West Indies or Republican America, when within the sound of the very walls of Congress the clang of chains was heard, giving the lie to the frothy declarations of liberty within... He would say, that slavery was always essentially , and fundamentally of the same sinful and indefensible nature.—( Great cheering.) It • Was not a misfortune to be deplored a nuisance to be tolerated, hut a curse of the deepest dye, and of the highest magnitude, "(I as such, to be denounced and extirpated.—(Cheers.) Except to refute the arguments of his 'opponents, he (Mr. Blair) would not condescend to go into it as a matter of detail. It was to him a question of high moral principle , a nd it mat tered n o t t o hi m whether the slava be well or ill-treated— Whether he received a few more or less stripes—whether he was fed upon 20 or 10 pints of rice per week—whether men and women were decently or indecently flogged—it mattered not whether they were starved and ill-treated, for being vir tuous, or the pampered victims of their owners ' lust. No, the vital question was—and they could not have it too frequently repeated—the real vital question was, whether any human being could lawfully have property in another human be ' n g•—( Hear, and cheers.) Whether he had aright to the forced and uncompensated labour of another man.—( Hear.) Now, he would assert fearlessly and without compromise the right of every man to the fruits of his own industry—that was above all law and above all human Government, and which not all the Acts of the Leg islatures of all the Government s on earth could lawfully take away.—( Hear.) From this sound principle, whichwas founded on reason and religion, they Koote!id, at the outset of the question, of one great stumbling a vi i tii , k , or objection—he meant the question of a compaet,. of of T . ' they had recently heard so much. He had the opinion - ae t t ne Chief Justice of the Queen'; Bench that no such com pact ""ed—and he for one, as an unprofessional person, would thereonthe authority o f that Learned Judge.—( Hear.) But had have being any such compact, he maintained that it would point better an illegal one, vitiated in its origin, and not one better in its principle, in morality', or in justice, than a compact entered into between a b an d o f smugg l ers an d thi e ves, and therefore on l y d eserv i ng o f being reprobated aed dis tol 'ed. If A an d B en t er i n to a compact to break into the hous e of C and rob him on the high way, he would call that J I mmoral compact ; and if it were proceeded with, the par ties. were liabl e , b y way of compensation, to be hanged by the tl a ck•—(Great laughter.) If A and B entered into a com pact to steal C, or to rob him of his wages (which was the very case in point here), he would say it was an unlawful a nd immoral compact, and deserving to be visited with the se verest penalties of the law. Unless they were prepared to adopt the West Indian slave-owner's code of morality, which taught them that stealing a horse, or other inferior animal, constituted a robbery—but stealing a man was certainly one of the attributes of a gentleman, and perfectly consistent with what they deemed orthodox Cluist:anity.— (Hear, and laughter.) Let them not be told by the Minister of State or others of the right of the masters—it was a right acquired by fraud and retained by violence, in opposition to those sacred rights which the Almighty had conferred on every human being alike, or every clime and complexion, from the equator to the poles. —(Cheers.) No human law could con travene the law of God. No chartered rights, no vested in terests, though they outweighed in pecuniary value the mines of Ind, could do away with the immutable right of every hu man being to his personal freedom.—(Hear, hear.) But , leaving the furthe r di scuss i on of these fund a mental principles, which were not much admired by mere politicians, he would come al once and meet his opponents more on their own ground.—( Hear.) And here-his pos i t i o n simply wee, that the conditions up on w hi c h t h e eno rmous sum of twenty millions were paid h a d not been fulfi lled on the ose Part o f th ose rece i v i ng t h e moll y; lie would assert that _ Persons e ith er as i n di v id ua ls or Colonial legislators had, c p t with few exe c ti ons . mo st gr ossly and shamefully violated the imperial Ain its letter and spirit.—( Hear and cheers.) ,That the alleged contract, if it ever exist ed, was therefore no ;°e-ger binding on the Br-iitsh Parliament , an d that the latter had a right' without any breach of faith o r inconsistenc y , to :Trail it tomorrow. So ' far as Jamaica was concerned, he had "us touch to say, on the authority of t wo of their most talented 4 1 )( ments, Lora , Glenelg and Sir Edward Sugden, the latter, of whom r e it er a te d t h e sta t e ment again and again in the course otL. his spe ec h ( Cheers.) He wou ld take the liberty of illustrating that nosition by reference to a matter of every -ay A took d occurrence in that country .—( Cheers.) man an apprentice, and the terms of the contract l t , v i ere t i nterfere; mutu a lly f u lfill e d an d w hiif., that was done th e law cou i r s ' e t e e ' ler e; but let a case of neglect or ill-treatme nt be p roved eeire magistrate, and what (lid the law then do? It em powered and requ i re d th e magistrate to annul and cancel the indentures to take the apprentice out of the hands of the master, and left him perfectly free to seek another. That was precisely the case he brought before them en behalf of the coloisial apprentices. Whether he referred to the food, the el pthiug, the labour, the punishment, the appraisernent, the cl assification, or any other of the dearest and best recognised li g 4t s of the negro, he found the provisions of the Imperial Act flagrantly violated, and the negroes placed in a worse condition than during the worst days of slavery.—(Vehement lie had intended to have glanced at some of these items, es regaeeeed one or two colonies , and particula rl y J.amaica, w hi ch contained nearly one-half of the negro popula t.illon, and a l so w i th reference to Antigua, because that colony ad b e A ee a good deal vateeted of late as a sort of te rrestrial r" a utse, and as exhibiting the most finished working of the apprenticeship system. His ceiend Mr. Scobell, howevee, was I ,!'uell bette r a cqua i n t e d w i t h its details, and better prepared for g"ine over the ground, and therefore he wo t d d leave it in leis hand's. He wouhl, however, say one word with regard to punishm ents, for here, at least, they might have expected sous mitigation of' the evils of slavery, always observing, that with the exception of 45 limns per week to bp given to the master, the negro was to be, to all intents and purposee. a free roan, and to be treated as such. The Imperial Act bore an I ts very tick nage, that " Slavery was to be for ever and to tally abolished." In the days .of slavery, and under the THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1838. say that he spoke with very cordial respect ; but sure he was, that the impression left by his speech would be feeble indeed if the statements on the other side had been heard. Under these circumstances, he was convinced that it did not require many arguments to induce the concurrence of all parties in favour of a further discussion of the question in Parliament. He did consider, for his own part, that such a renewed discus sion was absolutely called for , a nd, if there was one s u b ject more than another that required th e imm ediate at tention of the Legislature , it was the N ett In dia question.—( Hear.) He h ad watched the p ro g r ess of than question more than twenty y ears, and from the mo ment Wilberforce entered on the splendid c areer, which r eflected undying lustre on his name , som e such course as the on o that had been adopted, was pursue d ever y time the sub j ect was brought before Parliament. ( He ar, hear.) The alle gations Nm,eardyebeasgtaianustthotrhiety, Wbraedst, almost in i t o ho eyehrysuopapsoorfehdeoon un blushingly the blushingly denied, and the highest names were adduced by the House of Commons in endeavouring to show that such allega tions were not correct. Discussion after discussion were how.. ever forced upon the legislature, until at length they had been enabled to rest their case not only upon individual testi mony, but upon the testimony of the Colonial Office itself, and y upon the resolutions of the British Parliame n t._ ( Hear, hear, and cheers.) The country he believed had not yet awoke from the delusion under which it was labouring on this subject. It was supposed when the Apprenticeship Act had been carried that the question was satisfactorily settled, and when disabused upon this point it seemed to think that it was fettered by something like a compact.—( Hear.) Were they now to allow this momentous question to rest of the c w r h u e e r l where it e s tinjury presentr y o d, they o w f .oulc t l ho b s e e g w u h il o ty m they professed to defend. He was fearful that he was quarrelling with those who were zealously sensitive on every word that might reflect on the British name, and who imagined that it was a violation of good faith again to agitate the question. But he was satisfied when the subject came to be fully dis cussed, whatever might be their opinion of the com pact at present, the more the obscurity that hung about it would be dispelled, the more certainly would they come to the conclusion that that compact had been flagrantly, griev. ously, and generally broken—that it had been so broken, that it was, in fact, abolished, and that the ground was left clear. --(Loud cheers.) The more the question was discussed, the sooner would they be restored to their proper position as arbiters between the negro and the planter, and as protectors of the negro race.—( Renewed cheers.) But he might be allowed to ask, wherefore all this sensitive feeling, on every thing con nected with the planters—wherefore this constant appeal to justice, wherever the planter was concerned? Why did they look to one side only of the question—and why he asked, were all the difficulties of the question to be settled at the expense of the negroes.—( Hear, hear, and cheers.) They had been accustomed in this country when a man was placed upon his trial, to hear the Judge from the Judicial Bench tell the Jury, that if they had any reasonable doubt upon their minds, that they should give the pri soner the benefit of it. And why, if a criminal was thus dealt with, did they deprive of the benefit of a rea sonable doubt one who had never committed any offence—who had never been charged with the commission of a crime, and who had never been brought be fore a Judge or Jury, but who, on the contrary, had been ground down by oppression and violence, who had been re duced to captivity by force, and who had been made to cat the bitter bread of slavery for a number of years.--( Loud cheers.) The question of the violation of the compact was one hich they had endeavoured at their last meeting to es tablish by facts and arguments. There was no occasion, however, to do that now. The question had been referred to a jury of their country, and that jury returned its verdict in the votes of their representatives, not in the votes of the minority only, but in the votes of every one who voted for the resolution of Sir George Strickland, and the Bill of Lord Glenelg. Yes, lie repeated, they had the unanimous vote of the House of Commons, that that compact had been violated.---(Renewed cheers.) Convinced as he was that that that compact had been violated—satisfied as he was, from past experience, and all that he had heard and read and learned from public and private channels—some of them, too, planters in British Guiana—of the impossibility of carrying Lord Glenelg's Bill into effect—finding that every argument against them was fallen to the ground—with these convictions, he could not sit down with out stating that nothing ought to satisfy their judgments, their consciences, or their feelings, without raising up one universal voice for immediate and unconditional emancipation.—( Loud applause.) 2. That this meeting regard the endeavour to set aside the motion of Sir George Strickland, and the advantage taken of that opportunity to press forward the Bid then before the House of Commons, together with the abrupt termination of the debate, when the partial statements of the advocates of the Colonists were in great measure unanswered, as mani festly calculated to prejudice the decision of the question in opposition to the prayer of numerous petitioners, and that the further discussion of tilt ir claims for the speedy abolition of the apprenticeship is therefore. endered absolutely necessary. • The Rev. Mr. SQUANCR rose to second the resolution., He could not bring such powers of eloquence to the ad-' vocacy of the subject as he had listened to that . day, but he brought as warm a heart as ever throbbed for the sufferings of his fellow-creatures.—( Cheers.) He regarded negro slavery as one of the foulest stains that had darkened the page of British history.—( Hear, hear.) He main teined that no man could claim right of property in his fellow man—all were born equally free, and the man who should be deprived of that boon, which heaven at his birth be stows upon him, he, and he alone had a right to cry aloud againstinjustice, and he alone deserved and ought to re ceive compensation.—( Hear, hear, and cheering.) Many of those who differed with them, were, he knew, ardent lovers of the negro race, and they feared that by interfering in this question they would place the negro in worse circumstances than they were at present. But they took their stand on much higher ground—they took their stand on the eternal princi ples of justice and mercy, leaving to the God of Justice the consequences which might ensue.—( Loud cheers.) These individuals feared that the negro, if left to his own unrestrained liberty, would cease to labour for themselves or others, and by this means increase, instead of diminish the evils under which they at present latoured.—( Cheers.) But he confessed he had no apprehensions ox this ground, for the negroes would release themselves from the vassalage of those who treated them with cruelty, so soon as they were left free to make their choice, and would give their voluntaay labour to those c. ho had treated, or were likely to act kindly and justly to them. The negroes of the West Indies were capable of reasoning, rind reasoning rationally, upon every subject which concerned their temporal and eternal welfare, and although there were some who would place them almost on a level with the ourang outang, yet the negro had proved that he possessed wit an keen and hearts as feelingly alive to kindness as those who, for their own unworthy purposes, endeavoured thus to disqualify him from takinz his place amongst the more fa voured members of the human family.—( Cheers.) The Reverend Gentleman concluded an excellent address by se conding the resolution. JOHN SCOBEL, Esq., came forward amidst loud cheers to support the resolution. He said that nothing but a stern sense of duty could have induced him, in the present state of his health, to travel a distance of '2OO miles in order to attend that meeting. But as he thought it possible that some gentleman might conic forward to reply to the state ments which he had made at the public meeting in London, h e felt it his duty to be there to meet such a one, if such a one should happen to come forward to contradict what he then said.—( Cheers.) It had been said by more than one speaker that the cause of abolition had sustained a temporary defeat. It had so — but th at did not arise front the badness of their cause. The noble aim of their cause was universally admitted; and the testimony of the people of Eng land to the justice of their cause, as contained in their petitions, warranted him in saying that there would not he found, through out the length and breadth of the land, a single man who would come forward and say that they were acting wrong when they were advocating the cause of justice for the oppressed and injured negro.—(Cheers). He might refer to the deliberations of the Houses of the Legis lature to bear him out in saying that justice to the negro must be done, however long it might be delayed.—(Cheers.) Va rious rcasous bad been alleged as to the cause of their defeat. Some said it was occasioned by Lord Brougham haying placed himself at the head of the abolition movement in the House of Lords. Lard Brougham, it was true, had advocated the measure with all the zeal and energy and eloquence of a statesman, but let it be recollected that the abolitionists did not place him there to advocate their cause. They knew no man as regarded his political sentiments—but wherever they found a sincere and ardent fiend to suffering humanity they gladly availed themselves of his assistance. Others attributed their defeat to that great and eloquent man the leader of Ireland, who led the movement party in the House of Commons. Of Mr. O'Connell he might also say that he had not been selected by the abh li:ionists to plead the cause. He had been placed in the si tuation he had been found, and lie (Mr. Scobel), for one, would ever give his strenuous assistance to him, or any other man, who would do justice to the negro.—( Cries of " Hear, hear," and loud cheering.) Their defeat had arise n, not from the want of' any wisdom in their measures, or any energy in their action ; and he appealed fearlessly to the gigantic efforts made by the people of Britain to do justice to a long oppressed, calumniated, and down-trodden race. — ( Load and tremendous cheering.) What, he asked, was it that had drawn together and filled that theatre' with such a brilliant assemblage, as he saw before him Was it to hear how the subject would be advocated? No, for they had heard it advocated before, but it was the love of jus tice to the negro, and he was much deceived if that meeting did not tell powerfulty throughout the land, and on the Government of the country, (cheers) It had been said that, in their advocacy of the cause of the op pressed slave, they must not deal with individuals. It ap peared that their mouths were to be shut in reference to men in high station.—( Cries of " No, no," and " Yes, yes.") He ( Mr. S.) had no notion of separating the dice from the gambler—(Cheers)—he had no notion of separating the sinner from his sin —(Cheers)—he hadno notion of separating the usurper of human nature from the system lie was found sepporting—( Great cheering)--and he much marvelled to hear an individual, estimable for virtue, tor talent, and for piety—he marvelled to hear that individual above all others Say, that they should not deal with persons.—( Immense cheer in, arid expressions of disapprobation, in the midst of wh ich, cheer in, Rev. HUGTI NI`NEILL came forward amidst renewed uproar, and cries of " order, orde:," and " chair, chair." The CHAIRMAN endeavoured to obt in order, in which he partially succeeded, when the Rev. Gentleman again came forward and claimed a few moments' exolatee. ion. He ob served that he merely wished to set himself right freal what he was sure was an unintentional misrepresentation. He did not say that they were net to allude to individuals, but lie did say that to dilate at length on the private personal motives of reign of terror, not more than 39 lashes could be inflicted for any domestic offence. Under the apprenticeship system, there were 13 cases in which 50 lashes might be inflicted, If an unfortunate man left the property to bury the dead, to visit a sick child, or any similar errand that constituted him a vagrant, and under the operation of the new law, by means of which he was closely watched, he was subjected to have his chains re-forged, and to be punished with 39 lashes. Indo lence, neglect, or the improper performance of work, ren dered him liable, at the sentence of a single Magistrate, to re ceive 50 lashes. Carelessness was visited with three months' imprisonment and 50 lashes. Drunkenness (he wished the Act as regarded that could be applied to the other party) and other similar misdemeanors, was punishable at the will of a single magistrate by 50 lashes. As a suitable climax to such a piece of legislation, the strongest temptation was held out to penal labour, and the apprentice, for bringing a charge against his master, however true, was punishable by a double loss of his time to his employer, and twenty lashes.— (Shame.) Now for the charge of insolence which might mean anything or nothing, as a look or a turn of the body might be so construed. All instances of insubordination were liable to be punished with 39 lashes, and to show them what was considered insubordination, a magistrate, and a special one too, named Price, sentenced a poor woman to the tread mill twenty minutes daily for a fortnight, for taking Morri son's pills.—( Roars of laughter.) That fact was ludicrous enough, but it was still more wanton and brutal.— ( Hear, hear, hear.) But an equally strong case was made out against British Guiana, which had been described by a certain celebrated gentleman, named Gladstone, as a kind of Oasis in the moral desert, and against which he said no com plaints had been made, except by some anonymous slanderers. He hoped he was not out of place, as British Guiana had been mentioned, to allude with the permission of the meet ing, to that gentleman and his late speech. He was extre mely sorry that Mr. Gladstone had come before the public in such an aspect, because he had been credibly informed, and he believed, that Mr. Gladstone in private life exhibited all the loveliest and most beautiful features of a Christian character, and that circumstance only rendered his example the more dangerous.—( Hear.) If, - however, he found such a person setting at nought the dictates of the Lord and Master, whom he professed to serve, and who required him to love his neighbour as himself, and to do to others as he would be done by—if he found such a person setting at naught or trampling under foot the express injunctions of our Divine Master, not to rob the poor because he is poor—drawing his subsistence from the forced and unrequited labour of his inoffensive fel low-men—if he found him sanctioning by his example and influence the horrible immoralities, the name -14 ss and untold atrocities which must exist wherever slavery existed, then he would say, and he said it with pain, that he trembled for such an individual, and that he blushed for the anomalous, false, and ungracious picture which such conduct presented. He would add, that if they had no other representation of Christianity—if i they did not discern her lovely features in other quarters, as they were pourtrayed in the Book of God, they might be tempted to say that such re ligion could not be from abeve, from the Father of Mercies, but beneath, from the Father of Lies, the author of all evil.— ( Hear, and cheers.) He must say, in reference to that speech, that if ever there was a speech which bore on the face of it the name of partizan, who laboured "to make the worse appear the better cause"—(Cries of " Hear, hear") — if ever there was a speech worthy of the palmy days of slavery, it was the speech of Mr. Gladstone.—( Cheers.) It was the speech of a feed advocate, the apology of the slave owner, and the wrong doer, and of the interested and guilty party.— ( Cheers.) But when they recollected that Mr. Glad stone, or his family, received 80,0001. or 100,000/. out of the twenty millions, which he ( Mr. Blair) maintained instead of going into the pocket of the wrong doer, should, upon every principle of justice and mercy, have been paid to those who had been robbed of every thing that was dear to men.—( Loud cheering.) When he remembered that Mr. Gladstone still held in his grasp many hundreds of defenceless and unoffending fellow-creatures, he could not wonder at his defence of the system, and his anxiety to cling to the remaining two years of apprenticeship. The Rev. HUGH M'NEtL here came forward. He apolo gised for the interruption, but thought that personal allusions of that nature had nothing whatever to do with the matter. ( Cheers, and cries of " Order, order," and some confusion.) The CHAIRMAN said the Reverend Gentleman's interposi tion was very much in accordance with his own feelings. An allusion to Mr. Gladstone was perhaps unavoidable in reply to his speech, but he hoped it would not be pesevered in. Mr. BLAIR had prefaced what he had to say relative to Mr. Gladstone, by trusting that it was in accordance with the feeling of the meeting. He would at once bow to its decision, observing, however, that he had made no al lusion to the character of Mr. Gladstone, Rev. Mr. M‘Nete—You were right to speak of him. Mr. BI.AIR--No one sympathises more with Mr. Glad sone, for the unfortunate position in which he was placed, and his observations had been certainly more .n sorrow than in anger. He would only say this much, that if some of Mr. Gladstone's statements were correct, either the Planters of Jamaica were the most maligned and calumniated body of men on the earth, and the slaves were in every respect more comfortable and happy than the peasantry of this country ; but, then, what would they say of the contrary statements made in Parliament by Mr. Gladstone's own friends and allies ?—( Hear, hear.) What would Mr. Gladstone say to the sweeping condemna tions of Sir E. Sugden, Lord Gienelg, Sir G. Grey— the accusations of the Marquis of Sligo, and the terrible denunciations of Lord Brougham, and what would he say of the Government Bill itself, which was intended to correct the gross abuses and infractions of the Imperial Act? Either Mr. Gladstone - proved too much or all the others Were greatly mistaken.—( Hear.) In the space of 22 months lie found that one in four of the whole labouring population of the West Indies had been punished. In transferring the power of the special magistrates, it had been confidently anticipated that the sufferings of the negrocs would be diminished ; but they had been disappointed, fur the whole system of slavery, whether as regarded stocks, iron collars, working in penal gangs, the tortures of the wheel, which is still in active operation—when to that was added the frequent mulcts of the labourer's time, he would say that his condition was very little, if at all, improved or ame liorated. He would ask, was it for that they had poured their money like water to redeem those unhappy creatures from bondage.—(cheers)? It was past endurance to think that, although they had bought the negros' freedom with so much money, and although they called him a freeman, still he was liable to have his body torn like a felon, by the degrading lash ; and what was still worse, and more unspeakably atrocious, because it was in direct viola tion of the provisions of the Imperial Act, he was liable to see his wife or daughter suspended from the cursed tread-mill, knocked and bruised by the wheel, and her blood flowing from her body.—(Cries of " Shame.") That was a part of the question which, he confessed, disturbed him to the very centre to think upon, and he would ask were they to look coldly on and behold such wrongs and indignities as these and yet make no effort to relieve them ?—( Cheers.) Would they who were founding an asylum for helpless foreigners driven by op pression to their shores, and who were ready to shed their blood like water in defence of freedom—would they look on at the blood-stained limbs of defenceless men and women while they inflicted the punishment of the law upon the tortu rers of " the beasts that perish."---( Cheers.) How were all these atrocities to be got rid of by the present Bill—they pro posed to legislate for the future, but awarded no compensation for the past, and that measure was just as likely to be vio lated as the one it professed to amend.—( Hear, bear.) If he might be allowed, without arrogance, to make one allusion to scripture, he would say that the attempt was like patching an old garment with new cloth. The rent would only be made worse, the Bill would produce more irrita tion in the West Indies than the simple and straightforward righteous measure they advocated. The Bill would be looked upon as a direct interference with the rights of the Colonial legislature, and would be treated with scorn and contempt. There was no possibility of amending the measure whilst any part of the original taint remained—they might prune its excaescences, strip off its unsightly parts, but it would be but as a whited sepulchre externally, but when its recesses were explored,it would be found filled w ith dead men's bones,rotteness, and corruption. From the crown of the head to the sole of the fuot there would be no sound part in it—it admitted but of one cure, and that was sweeping it all away.—( Cheers.) Away then with tall tinkering, patching, and mending—let them lay the axe to the root of the evil, and by a decisive stroke, plied by a vigorous arm, lay the moral Upas tree prostrate. If the Parliament and her Majesty's Ministers refused to do their duty—if they were compelled to sustain a second defeat, and if the Legislature still continued to turn a deaf ear to the nation's prayer, then his hope and prayer were, that that great and gracious Being who sat enthroned above all human le gislation, whose ear was ever open to the prayer of the poor and the defenceless—(Cries of " Hear, hear.") and who once interposed with outstretched arm to deliver his oppressed and trodden-down people from bondage—his hope and prayer were, that lie would rise again in his might, and by such means as his inscrutable wisdom deemed best, shake off the oppressor, and burst the bonds of the wicked, and let the oppressed go free.—( Loud and gener il cheering. ) A gentleman in the body of the meeting, whose name we understood to be Knibb, here requested that the 15th section of the Act might be read. The SECRETARY having read the section, Mr. KNIBB said the clause which had been read struck him most forcibly, though it appeared very smooth on the surface, as the greatest curse that could be inflicted on the negro. The Rev. Mr. BEVAN explained the origin of what ap peared to be a misapprehension —the clauses he had read its the course of his address basing been taken from the Bill as submitted to the Members of the House of Commons, in which subsequently some slight alterations had been made before it passed into a law. ADAM HODGSON, Esq. rose to move the next resolution, and in doing so observed that he was hippy to say it required few observations from him in order to recom mend it to the consideration and approval of the meet ing. It was not necessary for him, lie believed, to enquire into the fairness or t h e un f a i rness of the Parliamentary tactics by which Ministers took the opportunity of introducing their on the ccsio of Stick land's motion ; nor wasown Bill hp anxious o to a fix n the o i dium ofr that measure on their opponents. The abrupt termination of the debate was, be believed, owing to their own friends.—( Hear, hear, and loud cheering.) It was now admitted by all parties that the abrupt termination of the debate was the cause of the loss of Sir George Stricklend's motion. es (Hear.) He vas sure that at that late hour of the meet ing, it wou ld be wrong were he to detain them with any 1, ngtheread observations, He would, however, say of the debate, that had it not been thus tort - pleated, there would have been a very favourable impression left on the House of Com mons;, Been after the brilliant speech of Mr. Gladstone.— (A .laugh.) n Of that Gentleman's character, he begged to .. . • individuals would not serve their glorious cause.—( Hear, hear,. and cheering.) He would say that he yielded to no man in England in a cordial determination to go tle•ough thi. cause, but for the sake of the cause itself, he would confine himself to the public acts and public speeches of individuals, and not follow them into their private motives. —( Considerable confusion.) Neither would he ascribe to them hypocrisy in their religion nor mercenary motives in their conduct.—( Loud cheering, and great uproar.) Mr. SconLE resumed.—lle: should not stand acquitted before his conscience, if he did not sa y that he bad as much faith i n th e piety of a thief as in the piety of a slave-owner. Having made this statement in all good feeling to the Rev. Gentleman, he would now address himself to the subject before the meeting. The speech he had made in Exeter hall, the other day, was before the public, it had appeared in the papers, and all who felt that these statements could be contradicted, let them do s o if they pleased, but let them give him an opportunity of meeting them upon the points at issue between them._ ( Hear, hear.) There were, however, some points of considerable importance which he could not introduce in that speech, and he thought it fit on the present occasion to dilate upon several topics which he had then left partially un touched. He threw that speech before them, and it was a reply to a speech purporting to have been delivered in the House of Commons by Mr. Gladstone. That gentleman had referred to Guaiana, which had been held up to the world as being pure as unsunned snow. He ( Mr. Scoble) bad spent several months in that colony, and the whole of that time he had devoted diligently to try the working of the system, and the actual condition of the negrois under it-- ( Hear)--and he had endeavoured since his return from thence to fight with the system rather than its supporters.— ( Cheers.) On that account, in his public address he had scarcely mentioned the name of a single plantation, much less that of a planter ; but when he found men of the highest integrity—men who had risked their lives in the cause of benevolence and humanity—when he found men like Joseph Sturge, and others, covertly traduced in the House of Commons —when he found their statements instead of being manfully grappled with, and overturned by fair argument or contradicted by the proposition of new facts ; when instead of that, the terms " anonymous slanderers" were applied by an lion. Gentleman, he must say that he felt somewhat of indignation when terms of that sort were bandied through the House of Commons, and not a single person got up in the cause of the oppressed and the absent, and request that common justice might be done to those who had gone forth with their lives in their hands in order to inquire into the sufferings of a long degraded and injured race of people.—( Loud and continued cheering.) They were told on that occasion that the law of British Guaiana, for carrying the Slavery Abolition Act into effect, was almost perfect. But he would beseech that meeting to look into the question, and they would find the law so full of omissions and defects, that it should at once have been set aside by his late Majesty's Ministers. Instead of that, however, the Act, with all its defects, its repugnancies, and omissions, was allowed to be carried into effect, and by that declaration of the Govern ment the planters of Guaiana became possessed of upwards of four millions of British money. He would not now dwell upon these points, for he had done so already, but he might be permitted to say something as to the subsequent legislation that had taken place in that colony.—( Hear, hear, hear.) As soon as the Act had received the sanction of the Home Government, it bad been found anything but satisfactory pre vious to its being carried into effect. The Governor of the Colony obtained much valuable information from those who were appointed to carry its provisions into effect. At that time Mr. Arundel, a planter of Demerara, and who was also a barrister, filled the office of Attorney- General.—( Hear and cheers.) Its defects were brought under his consideration "or the purpose of remedying them, but true to his character as a planter be refused to do so, and rather than amend an act which was admitted to be, and was manifestly defective, lie retired from the Attorney- Generalship.—( Hear. ) Aliother person was appointed to his place; but was the act cured ? No ; it was allowed to continue in force till the present moment, although it had been utterly condemned by a Parliamentary Committee. Thus much with respect to the act, its omissi ons , d e f ects , an d reougnances . Th ere was one point connected with its operation to which ha felt it necessary to refer. On going through its various clauses, he found that the planter had taken care to secure to himself every possible privilege in the shape of acquiescence in his will. He reigned lord paramount in every portion of the Act, and the penal clauses were so constructed that the unfortunate apprentice could not possibly escape them. And when they came to look for penalties upon the planters although a 201. penalty was adjudged against the man who cruelly maltreated his apprentice, yet that penalty could not he en - brced ; and it was admitted, and stood upon record, that it was a mere nullity.---( Hear, hear.) There was, then, no penalty—no restriction, which might secure the privileges and immunities which had been purchased for the negro at so dear a rate by the people of Great Britain. This was the law of British Guaiana, and he would now look to the practice under that law.—( Hear.) And first, with respect to labour, The Imperial Statute says that all the planters shall feed their negroes from their stores on receiving from them forty-five hours labour. It was the design of the Legislature that that labour should be taken in five days of nine hours each. Sa turday was to have been sacred to the negro, either for sale or marketing, or for any other useful purpose, but they would find that the Act for British Guaianaspread the forty-five hours over the whole of the six working days, and thus the negro was robbed of every Saturday. The consequence was, that they had still the Sunday market, with all the vice and immorality it entailed; but with respect to the amount of labour that could be drawn from the negro under the celebrated Guaiana Ordi nance, he had already stated that it was forty-five hours per week. But the planters, previously to the Ist of August, drew up a tariff of laeour, and in that they found the amount of a day's labour to be full seven and a half hours—but after a very minute, most strict, and extensive inquiry in that colony, he (Mr. Scoble) found that they exacted as much work in these seven and a-half hours as e,er the planter had been able to exact from the unwilling slave under the old system.—( Hear, hear.) He was aware that there were many planters in Demerara who would refer him to the tariff, and point out the amount of labour that would be required of a negro in nine hours, and then ;point out that a deduction had been made to meet the reduced amount of time. But all that argument about the tariff was a mere subterfuge, to delude the Government and people at home. He ( Mr. Scoble) would assert, and he challenged contra diction that the planters extorted from the Negro an amount of labour as great as that he could have exacted from him under the old system when he was a slave. He had given proofs in support of that statement before the meeting at Exeter Hall, and he had given as one argument aa increase in the a mount of the produce. The same argument was repeated by an Honourable Gentleman in the House of Commons —it was not contradicted by Mr. Gladstone, but it was referred to by him, and to what did he attribute it?—To the influence of genial seasons, not to the tariff of labour which he (Mr. Scoble) had been describing. The next point every a d be en adult re reduced above o ce d ten to I y o e years old,rere reference o lO t i o to which lie would refer was food; and any one who would re fer to the Orders in Council of the years 1831 and 1832 would find that every slave was entitled to receive 21 pints of pints (half the amount), for every negro under that age. Cries of s axle.") Ten thousnafioiwdodhfircehteo thtielyeßut if they referredfor every tto the ers? Guaiana u u a n i a d r e i a r l 2 ordinance, year s otfhe age,y w would find, half while the little modicum of food given to chile uponwers their withdrawn pa renftrs"vlvititihedmi farinaceous y s ear ti s :,row ( h A n d fo p o i d nts for b chil dren had been tiers thatata:ldlriticauontilgiisteial,ltittnehieadoenodruje:Lt (s x to introduce a class of individuals 11-esources, and diminished supply of food, a He would could supply their wants. here observe, that an at tempt Demerara, in e. a, in order to bring down the and except. u_p_goeithaenSaabbreadtluicteheythheadsunpopldyayoof called Hill Coolies into price of wages The planter, it appeared, had coolly had a cal negro. that twonence-worth of rice ' culation made day , will supply a Hill Cooley and per then, when his labour into the market in competition with the negro, it was brought would be argued that the . same quantity was now making must supply the ne- Vas it possible. he would ask, that a man pos sessinggroes' wants. \ wealth and great influence should use that wealth vast d that influence for the p ur p ose of o pp ressin g his fellfellow creaturesturfellow- creaturesLoud cheers)—and especially against that class of hi s fellow-creatures, from whom for years past wrung a considerable portion of their splen they have did revenues, without giving them just wages in re turn for their labour.—(Renewed cheering.) A slave fam ily of five persons was entitled to receive seventy-two pints of farinaceous food weekly. An apprentice family was en titled to receive the same number, but only thirty-five pints if they had one free child, and only thirty if they had two free children, and that was the modicum to be given to the apprentices, and such was the change from slavery to free dom. But was that the freedom they had purchased with their gold ?—( Loud and general cries of " No, no.") was that the freedein they had purchased with two tons of solid gold ?—( A voice in the crowd, " Mr. 111`Neil wanted to repress all that.") He ( Mr. Scoble) felt perfectly satisfied that the individual who had made the observation did not know Mr. M`Neil—( Cheers)—and it would be found that Mr. M•Neil would support him, for lie was attacking the system and not individuals.—( Cheers.) Well, there was another great and good criterion by which they might ascertain the true character of the a pprenticeship system, He had adverted to the sublect of labour, and also to the sub ject of provisions, and he would now glance at the subject of punishments. All persona must be aware that the statements of Mr. Gladstone in the House of Commons bad a considerable effect upon the minds of Hon. Members. Did not Mr. Glad stone make it appear that punishments had dwindled down to nothing ?—was he not cheered to the very echo?—and was not there at t h e conc l us i on a cry of "Divide, divide ( these, hear, hear.) But if Hon ourable Members had consulted the blue books on their table, or a little pamphlet that had been compiled for the purpose of reference, they would find that the punishments in British Guaiana exceeded those in Jamaica nearly 11 per cent. Here was a fact, then, which could not be' contradicted —( Cheers.) It would bo remembered that Mr. Gladstone had referred to the testimony of speci ,1 justices. He said, I will turn from anonymous slan derers to the testimony of special justises." Ile'( Mr Scoble) had done the same thing, and he had brought out the fact, that undrr th e m ild sway o f t h e m ildest Governor in British Guaiana, the amount of punishments inflicted upon the unfor tunate negro, taking into account the relative amount of population, exceeded those of Jameica by nearly 11 per cent. Great efforts bed been made while Dr. Lloyd and himself were there to reduce thp assount of punishments. an I they were col siderably reduced.—( Hear, hear, hear.) A circular had been sent round six weeks after his arrival, dire..ting that the lash should not be applied, except in cases svldch were to be submitted to the Governor for his approval. The consequence was that corporal punishments were reduced and changed to mulcts of time. Mr. Gladstone forgot to I mention that in the House of Commons (hear, and cheers). lln plantation Rome, in the colony of Demerara, the proprietor was a Mr. Hindman, who stood very high in the estimation of the religious world. The special justice of the district was on one occasion in vited by his manager to a late breakfast. He came, and after breakfast, heated perhaps with wine, a large number of negroes were brought before him, and he ordered no less than twenty of them to receive the lash (cries of shame, and hisses). As soon as the fact came to the knowledge of the governor, the late Sir James Carmichael Smith, he said " this is too bad ; I must in future make them report to me, and see if I cannot diminish the amount." lie ( Mr. Scobel) had these facts from the lips of the late Governor himself—( Cheers)—and the date of the circular shelved that it was six weeks after his arrival in the colony. He felt that he should be tedious if he were to detain the meeting any longer.--( Great cheers, and cries of " Go on.") He would make one observation on the wretched and degraded condition of the women of that colony, and he must say that if anything affected him more deeply than another it was their wretched and degraded condition Ile found that under the apprenticeship law all the immunities and privileges in their favour which existed under the slave law had been withdrawn. He found that all the laws and re gulations relativo to women who were anticipating their con finement, aged neeresses, and young children, which regu lated the amount of their time and labour, had been withdrawn, and that the women, whatever were their circumstances were compelled to work as many hours as the most athletic man in the gang_( Hear)—and that nursing women with children at the breast were compelled tr do as much work as the ablest and stoutest men in the gang, (great hissing, and cries of shame). He could go into details that would make their ears tingle and the blood in their hearts throb with indignation--he could tell them of scenes of the most atrocious nature, which had never been mentioned to British ears, and which he had felt scrupulous to mention even to his private friends (hear, hear.) There were a few state ments he felt it necessary on the present occasion to relate. On one sabbath he met at a mission station an intelligent ne gro and his wife. The man held the highest situation on the plantation under the manager. He was trustworthy, and could read and write, and was a member of a Christian church, a deacon belonging to a mission Church. His wife was also a member of some religious community. How was that woman treated at a period when she needed all the solicitude and kindness and attention of her master? She was driven to the field with the rest of the gang, day after day, —not being able to sustain the toil she applied for some re laxation to the driver. She said " You see my situation— vou know my condition, let me retire if but for a little time. I am ill, my skin pains me all over (an expression used by the negroes to denote extreme suffering) let me go to the watch man's hut." What was his reply? " No—l dare not do it." The woman then entreated that her husband, who was in the next field should be sent for. lie came,and appealed tot he driver on her behalf to be permitted to lie down for even a little time in the watchman's hut, and he did not appeal in vain, for the driver was not able to withstand it. The woman was permitted to go to the hut, but it was not long before the overseer came, and Isis first enquiry was for Susey (for that was the woman's name), and he ascertained that she had gone to lay down in the watchman's but. He went to the hut where she was lying prostrate, and asked what was the matter, and she answered—" Massa me no able to work any longer." What was his reply." Go to work or you must go to prison." She could not go to work, and she was taken by the constable imme diately to prison, and there locked up in that part of it called the Sore-foot-room. In that apartment the only persons were an old negress covered with sores, and a young girl. Two hours after being locked up she gave birth to an infant, and for three succeeding hours she was left without the slightest as sistance.—( Shame, shame.) He bad seen the woman, with her husband and the child, when she brought it to a Chris tian minister in order to receive Christian baptism.—( Hear. ) Might he be permitted to mention the name of the estate, if he was not permitted to mention the name of the individual— the estate was called Breedam Hope.—(Groans, hisses, and c ries of " Gladstone.") A Mr. ROWEN, who said that he was a planter of Demerara, here stood up, and said that the statement of Mr. Scobel was false. This was followed by great confusion, and cries of " Turn him out." Mr. SCOBEL resumed. He was used to that kind of languege, and be would tell them more, he cared not for it.—(Hear, hear, and great cheering.) He felt that he would not be dohs.- his duty to the negroes if he did not bring out those facts before the meeting, and the few ho had stated must stand for many which had come under his own observa tion, that gentleman's testimony to the contrary notwithstand ing.—(Great laughter and cheering.) In consequence of the severe treatment of the women a great mortality had taken place among the free children. Yes, the mortality was very great. He had gone over not less than 17 estates, and he had found that there were over 1,300 males and 1,200 females, and yet only 319 children under 9 years of age. Would that gen tleman tell the meetinr , how that had come to pass?— ( Hear.) He would adefurther, that right-minded people in the colony of Demerara were alarmed at the decrease in the free children, and some said that there would be a wide gap in 1810 in the population, unless the people of England interposed, and put an end to the apprenticeship system. Never did so many children die under the old as under the cursed apprenticeship system. Formerly they were better treated because planters had an interest in the human cattle bred on his estate, and therefore he took care of the mother for the sake of her offspring. Now the children were free, and he no longer had an interest in the matter, and by a rigid interpetation of the law, and a rigid applica tion of its enactments, they extracted from nursing, and pregnant, and aged women, as much labour as they possibly co ild. Among the plantations to which he had referred, in reference to population, there was one that lie would nary.° end give them the relative proportions. It was plantation Wales.—( Hear.) He found there 130 males, 102 females, and 29 children under nine years of age. There was one other point to which he wished to direct their attention, and that was the treatment of the sick. He had been very much entertained by reading at New York the eviden a of a Judge Willis as to the care taken of the sick in the sick houses. He ( Mr. Scoble) questioned much whether Mr. Willis had ever visited a sick house in his life.—( Hear, hear.) He ( Mr. Scoble) had visited them, and was prepared to give a description of them. He had already given one at Exeter Hall which may be seen in his printed speech ; and let any one contradict it who could.—(Cheers.) But be would mention what he saw at another plantation, called Nemus, where there was a very fine sickhouse, but where the care of the sick was anything but what it ought to he. On a low floor, lying on the bare ground, he had found locked up A black man and a •black woman, and, in an upper part of the sickhouse he found, under the roof, and without light, a negro incarcerated who had sores, and it was by mere acci dent it came to light. There he had found him, a miserable object, squatted and wretched, and wanting, in many instances the mere necessaries of life, and there, his friends were not al lowed to bring him the supplies his master refused him. In another sick house, he had found incarcerated in a small apart ment (where there were raised boards for 7 persons) 15 discus -el individuals—seven lying at the foot, and one under the boards, Yet these wretched beings were locked up from night till morrea ing, and from morning till night, with only a short interval in the latter part of the day for cleansing the apartment. He found among that mass of misery indi% ideals with contagious disease;, and the usual amount of food the convalescent were allowed was five or six cold boiled plantains. There was no wine—none of those luxuries which they had been told were so liberally dispensed to the sick; and, by the ' e y e , a curious discovery on tl,at point was made, for it was ascertained that the wine, which came duty free for the sick, found its way scomehor to the planters ruble, and the Governor then thought it fit that the duty should be charged upon all. They found one p oor f e ll ow w h o was i n a state of salivation, and who complained that he could not eat the cold boiled plantains, which was the only food they allowed him. If it had not been for the opportune visit of the Specie. Justice, he knew not whether the man's life would not have been forfeited to the carelessness and inhumanity of the sick- house overseers.—( Shame, shame.) Perhaps some one might ask was there not a place where the contagious might he lodged? —Yes, there were several, but in the British Colonies sick ness was a crime, and consequently every sick-house was a prison. He called upon them, in conclusion, to do justice to their principles as men, as Christians, and as Englishmen, by doing justice to the Negroes ; and let them put down at once and for ever, the power of the planter to persecute and prac tice frauds and cruelties upon the Negroes.—( Loud and ges neral cheering.) The resolution was then put and carried unanimously. The Rev. Ikon I‘PNEII.. came forward to move the next resolution, and was very cordially received. He came forward with pleasure in proportion to the intensity of his hatred of cruelty and oppression, to move the next resolution. At that late hour he would not attempt to add much to what had been already so a bl y stated with respect to the provi sions of the Abolition Act having been flagrantly violated. He would not allude to what had been said by the preceding speakers, further than to say that he was in the habit of sepa rating the !inner from his sin—that he distinguished those persons who were unhappily mixed up in such transactions from the crime itself, in obedience to the dictates of Him who had said, " as far as the east is from the west, so far shall I eut thy sin from thee."—(Cheers.) So much had been said of the contract and its violation, that it was difficult to put it in a novel shape. But he would assert that the breach of con tract was on the part of the planters, and that they had not entitled themselves to the liberal compensation which the Bri tish nation bad awarded thern.—( Hear, bear.) It ap peared from statements on the authority of Lord Sligo and Lord Glenelg, that on the most trifling grounds, the apprentices were removed from the protection of British law by being sent to the workhouses, where the special justices were not allowed to visit them.—( Shame.) That was a fla grant violation of the provisions of the Abolition Act. Every man who sanctioned such proceedings by his silence—every man who refrained from protesting against the system, was actually partieeps criminis.—( Hear, hear.) It was asserted that if the abolition of the apprenticeship system took place, property would be materially deteriorated in its value, because the negroes would not work. But had not these men received ample compensation fur the time of the negroes ? ( Hear, bear, ) They had heard of a finer hant—not a mer chant of Liverpool, or of Guiana—but a merchant of Venice, and it would appear as if, like the Jew in that play, the planters were determined to have the full amount of their bond, —( Loud cries of " Hear, hear," arid laughter. ) If they had nothing but insult, and injury, and fraud, against the British nation to complain of, he might bear it all, but when the oppressed an d unhappy negroes were ma d e t h e vic tims, lie for one could no longer submit to it.—(Vehement cheering.) Ile regretted that there should bo any division among the people Qf Qrcilt. tiritain upon such a subject—he regretted that all were not unanimous upon that great and portant question. He saw around him many with ‘‘..hom lie .. agreed, and many from whom he differed in religion tics; but on the present ground, v,,itbei. , • principle, they were all united.—( G, eat ) After some furtlic: elequ:ot add: - csses, for whicl, we hate not room to-day, The following resolutions and petition were agreel to. 3. That this meeting cons:der the flagrant violations of the Imperial • Act of ;833, which are admitted by the Noble Lord the Secretary for • the Colonies to have occurred, both in Colonial Statutes and 'n the con. duct of many of the planters —as again requiring them to press the ter- - mination of a system so liable to perversion and so fraught with occa sions of opp.ession—while the experience of the Colonies, in which the full measure of freedom has been enjoyed, and the confidence of th,e proprietors who have ordered the liberation of their apprentices, shun. dantly prove the propriety of the demand since the negroes are prepared to appreciate and improre a state of perfect liberty. 4. That tla'i meeting are rejoiced to learn that Sir Eardley Wilmot has been so restored to health as to place upon the books of the House no ice of a motion, in which the principle embcdied in the petitions pre. rented to Parliament is fully recognized ; and they call upon their iie- • p , esentatives, whenever ,that motion shall be brought forward, talth. fully to express by their votes the sentiments so strongly declared Ly a boiy of their constituents ; who casting aside every difference of opinion en other matters, are unanimous in their solemn purpose to roc satisfied with no enactment which fails to confer forthwith entire freedom on ev:ry negro subject of the British empire. 5. That the petition now read be signed on behalf of the Meeting by the Worshipful the Mayor, and that Sir Eard ey Wilmot be re.p.-ctfully requested to preseut the same to the House of Commons. 0 THE HONOURABLE THE COMMONS OF GREAT BRI. TAIN AND IRELAND IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED. The Petition of the Inhabitants of the Borough of Liverpool, and its vicinity, assembled in public meeting this day, April 20, 1838. Humbly slieweth,—Th:tt your petitioners are confirmed by the ad. m'ssiops of the Noble Lord the Secretary for the Colonies, in their eon \ 'cam), resulting from evidence previously in their possession, that no measure which fails to insure immediate and unconditional freedom to he apprentices in the British Colonies, will remove the injustice and emression of which your petitioners have had reason to complain. 'I hat the experience of the colonies in which the full measure of freedom has been enjoyed, and the confidence of those proprietors who have ordered the liberation of their negroes, abundantly prove the fitness of the latter for appreciating and improving a state of perfect liberty. Ycur petitioners have learned with great satisfaction, that the subject is to be brought again before your Hon. House by Sir Eardley Wilmot in the motion of which he has given notice, which they pray your Honourable House to take into your most favourable consideration, a:id to adopt the measures necessary to secure the immediate and un. conditional termination of that system of apprenticeship, Aid your petitioners, &c. The meeting then adjourned. WINDSOR.-FRIDAY. The Queen rode out this afternoon from two till three o'clock, accompanied by her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, and attended by the Duke of Argyll, Earl and Coun tess of Uxbridge, Lady Mary Stopford, Lord Gardiner, Col. Wemyss, Hon. Miss Cocks, Baroness Lehzen, the Hon. C. ;:nd Miss Murray, and Mr. Fozard. The threatening appear ance of the weather induced her Majesty to return to the Castle within an hour after she had left it. The company at the Royal dinner yesterday evening, in cluded the Queen, her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, Viscount Melbourne, Lady Barham, Lady Mary Stopford, the Duke of Argyll, Honourable Misses Cocks and Murray, Lord and Lady Gardiner, Baroness Lehzen, the Hon. C. Mur ray, Miss Davys, Earl and Countess of Uxbridge, Col. We myss, the Lady Eleanor Paget, Hon. Col. Cavendish, and Col. Wedderburn, of the Foot Guards. It is settled that the Court will leave Windsor on Tuesday next, for Buckingham Palace. COURT CIRCULAR. The Princess Augusta had a dinner party 'yesterday, at Clarence House. The company included their Royal High nesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Duchess of Gloucester, Prince George, and the Princess Augusta of Cambridge. The D'uehess of Cambridge visited her Majesty the Queen Dowager yesterday, at Marlborough House. The Earl of Durham had an interview with Lord Glenelg; yesterday, at the Colonial-office, to take leave, on his de7,Ar- Sure for Canada. Viscount Palmerston has gone to his seat, B:oadlands, [ants. Sir Charles Forbes had an interview yesterday with Lord Glenelg, et the Colonial-office. THE CORONATION.-we barn that the King of Hanover's apartments in St. Jar.nes's Palace are being got ready for the Grand Duke IV.exander, the eldest son of the Emperor of Russia, who i s expected to arrive in May,,to be present at the Coronation of her Majesty. The King and Queen of the B-..lgians will also be present, as well as the Dukes of Orleans, Brunswick, Saxe Coburg, the Prince and Princess of Orange, and the Archduke Charles of Austria, There is a mansion taken in Belgrave- - square for the Arch duke Charles. The Dukes of Beaufort and Devonshire will launch nett , carriages at the Coronation. His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex is 'ex pa-ted in town early next week, from a visit to Colonel -Wild man, of Newstead Abbey. One of the mist interesti:ng cere monies in reference to the Illustrious Duke's cone' s! eti on with the ancient body of Freemasons, is fixed on to 'take place on Wednesday, when a splendid piece of plate to be presented to the Royal Duke, on the compleGon of t.'ile 25th year of his able Presidency over that ancient fratet'aity ; an event, to use the language of the resolutions on t}le subject, unprecedented in to annals of the Order. The Duke of DevonsLlre will give his first grand dinner, after the reee2-s, on Friday, the 4th May, to tlieir Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the- Dukc and Duchess of Sutherland, Duchess-CrAintess of Sutherland, &c. Prince Esterhazy gave a grand dinner yes.ierday, at Chandos House, to a party of 15, among whom - ,v,re the Prus sian Minister, Marquis and Marchioness of (nanricarde, the Duke and Duchess de Coi.gny, Baron Wetl , ,er, &c. The Earl of Clonrnel will lead to ,he altar, early in June, the Hon. Miss Annett Burgh, eldest daughter of the g illant Major General Lord thiwnes. His Lordship retired :roam the Ist Life Guards a few days since, having done duty for a few months P's Cornet in that corps. The Duch;:ss-Countess of Sutherland is now eon v Alcicent, in consequence of a paragraph in IA morning paper, announcing the serious indisposition of her Grace, her nnusion in Hamilton-place was yesterday crowded by per sons of distinction, anxious to know if there vias any founda tion for the report. We regret to announce the serious indisposition of. Mrs. Francis Baring, Lady of the Secret 4ry of the Treasury, and a niece of Earl Grey. The answer yesterday to numerous inquiries was, that Mrs. Baring was very ill. The Duchess de Narbonne died at Mainsat, in France, on the 12t'n instant. Vile Duchess was of the family of La Roche Aymon, and aged 88 years. The Marquis de Cate;lan, Peer of France, has died at Toulouso, at the acre of 79. The Countess de Salis's juvenile ball took place on Thursday last at her Ladyship's mansion in Carlton-gar dens. It was extremely brilliant, wild was composed of the children of all the most distinguished nobility now in town. The Earl of Bandon entertained a party at dinner on Thursday last, at his houF,e in Connaught-place. The Countess of BerAuchamp has joined Earl Beau champ at the Altion Flotel, Brighton. Viscount I3urghersh will give a sumptuous dinner on the 25th instant, in Berkeley-street, Portman square,, to the Directors of the Concerts of Ancient Music. The Noble Lord is Director for the evening, and will m A ke the sele.'tion. The Lord Bishop of London and Mrs. Bloomfield are passing the Easter week at Brighton. S:r A. Dalrymple, Bart., 111. P„ is to leave Brigh tonte, day for town. Mr. and Lady Maria Stanley had a dinner party yesterday in Grosvenor -square. Mr. Blair had a large dinner party yesterday at his mansion in Portman-square. A ball wa6 given last evening by the officers in gar rion at the Tower. The Lord Advocate arrived here from Loyd on on S mirday morning. The death of his only child, a remarkably fine intelligent boy, on the afternoon of that day, has thrown hint and Mrs. Murray into the deepest distress.—Scotsman. DEATH OF Stir. REGINA,LD MACDONALD S. SETON, OF STAFFA, BART.—It is with unfeigned regret we announce the dr,ath of this gentleman, which took place at his house in Edinburgh at nine o'clock on Sunday morning last, after a lingering and painful illness. Sir Reginald was well known to the public as the Secretary for.many years of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, and as the Sheriff of Stirlingshire, the duties of which office he dis charged, for a period of upwards of twenty-six years, with a zeal and fidelity which, it may be said, proved to himself fats' ; , as, from exposure to cold, and over-tatigue, in suiipiess;.og the alarming riots which prevailed during the late eler lion at Stirling, he was first attacked by the distressing r.,alady which ultimately deprived the country of his valua' J le ser %ices. At the early age of twenty-one he was el , ,cted, and for thirty-nine successive years continued to he, uling Eldel• far the Presbytery of Mull to the General Assembly—a fact perhaps unparalleled in the annals of that venerable body. Sir Walter Scott, who knew and e* a j ove d hi s friend ship, and his acquaintances, acknowlc'''Age to be true when he wrote— .‘ Warmer heart, 'twixt tb.its and StafFa, Beats not than in hear 4 i ) f Star„ !" The Hon. Baronet was in his 61. st year, and is succeeded in his title and estates by his sot., now Sir Henry Macdonald Steuart Seton. —Scotsman. The Ottoman Porte I. t as presented some gates fqr the Museum at Versailles •,vhich were made by the crusad%.rs, aad Lelonged to the hosp:ital of the Knights of Rhodes, and a'so to a church attacht.A to that hospital. A tomb has latel,y been opened at Athens in which were found the body of a woman, two silver candlesticks as high as her hips, a rich garland of flowers in, plain gold, seven gold rings, with engraved precious stones, ivory tablets, and other ornaments. ~ . A GRAND ANNOUNCEMEIiT.-Some time sine's a person in the neighbourhood of Keswick, having several hives of bees to dispose of, anti being desirous to attract pur chasers, caused a placard to be printed, announcing the sale, with the following extraordinary head lines :—.4 Extensive sale of live stock, comprising not less than one hundred and forty thousand head, with an unlimited right of pstur age 1" The trick succeeded to admiration. i~-